How To Make A Friendship Quilt

I've been surfing the web for many years now, and I've found many different ways to communicate. One of the more interesting methods is known as a "friendship quilt". These are very popular among the members of internet social groups like Misker's Denizens, Random Acts of Kindness and Heart of Gold.

What is a Friendship Quilt? The internet version is similar in concept to the real world equivalent.  For over a hundred years, it has been traditional for many social groups to sew squares which are then added to a quilt. A theme would be chosen for the quilt, then everyone would contribute a square.

The internet variety is very similar - only the squares are graphics images and the cloth is pixels. And, of course, the size is much smaller (not to mention these quilts will not keep you warm at night!).

Oh yes, the most important piece of all - you don't make the quilt. You just supply the framework (an HTML page) and define a theme. Other people submit quilt pieces (which, by the way, are small graphic images) which you then add to create a unique communication about that theme. That's what makes these quilts so wonderful - they are a conglomeration of the ideas and concepts of many people, merged into a whole which communicates about a theme. You never know what you are going to get until it's all done.

Okay, that being said, how do you create a friendship quilt? Here are the steps that I go through when I do so.

  1. Pick a theme. This can be anything at all - the only real requirement is that other people must be willing to contribute to the quilt. Some common themes are:

    • Any holidays

    • Friendship

    • Love

    • Romance

    • Photo album

    • Gardening

    • Travel

    • Hobbies

    • Nature

    • Food

    • Sympathy

    • Memorial (in remembrance of loved ones now gone)

  2. Pick a quilt type. Most quilts seem to be made up of square pieces, some are rectangular. I see no reason why the pieces also could not be circular or oval - your own imagination is the key. Some common types are:

    • Square or rectangular, all pieces the same size

    • Random sizes

    • License plates, which are graphics created in the form of a license plate, complete with border and screw holes.

    • Stamps, which are created in the shape and form of stamps.

  3. Pick a size for each piece. Generally, most quilts are created with each piece the same size, although I've seen some cool effects with different sizes:

    • 130 by 130 pixels

    • 140 by 140 pixels

    • 150 by 150 pixels

    • 198 by 150 (a good size for license plates)

    • Just about any other size you can come up with

  4. Create an HTML page on your web site. This will begin as a blank page. I usually create an empty table on a page with a nice background graphic. As you receive pieces you add them to the table.

  5. Optional: write up a paragraph or a page or whatever about your quilt. I like to write a page answering questions like: what is it about? Why is it being created? For my holiday quilts, I like to write up the history of the holiday.

  6. Optional: Spice up the quilt page however you want. Include some other graphics, text, sounds, backgrounds or whatever else you want to make it look great.

  7. Send out invitations to get others to contribute. DO NOT SPAM. Also remember to use Bcc to protect other's email addresses. Be sure and clearly define what kinds of quilt pieces are of interest.

    1. If you are a member of an internet social group you can post an email to the group announcing your quilt. Be sure this is okay with your group - in other words, read the rules about such things. If you are in doubt, send a quick email off to the leader or a committee leader asking permission first.

    2. If you have a few friends who are into such things, be sure and announce it to them. Again, do not spam and use bcc if you are sending to many people.

    3. You can look at some existing quilts and visit the sites of the people who contributed. Usually their page will have contact information and indicate whether or not they are interested in hearing from you.

  8. Be sure to give enough notice to people so they can get their graphics created. A couple of weeks is a good amount of time to give at a minimum.

  9. As the quilt pieces are received, add them to your quilt. Be sure and load the graphics locally to your own server. This is important for several reasons:

    1. You don't want to steal bandwidth.

    2. Some providers (especially Geocities, NBCi and FortuneCity) prevent remote loading of graphics anyway.

    3. Most importantly, it puts the quilt under your control and you don't have to worry about someone deleting their piece from their web site.

  10. Generally, it is expected that each quilt piece is linked back to the page requested by the person who submitted the graphic. You should link back as requested. 

  11. Have fun. 

  12. I've found it's very rare to get quilt pieces that are not appropriate for the quilt that I am trying to create. If you do get some, you can (a) gently let the submitter know and perhaps ask for something more suitable, (b) start another quilt of a different subject, (c) save the piece for when you do start another one, (d) add it anyway, (e) or if for some reason it violates your moral code, then just ignore it.

  13. If your quilt is not tied to a particular date, you might periodically send out invitations (every few months perhaps) to get additional pieces.

  14. Once you are happy with your quilt - create another one! Do something different and, remember, above all have fun.

For some examples of our quilts, see

http://www.friendshipquits.com